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Emak-Bakia
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Wikipedia article
'Emak-Bakia' (Basque for 'Leave me alone') is a 1926 film directed by Man Ray. Subtitled as a 'cinpome', it features many techniques Man Ray used in his still photography (for which he is better known), including Rayographs, double exposure, soft focus and ambiguous features.
Synopsis
'Emak-Bakia' shows elements of fluid mechanical motion in parts, rotating artifacts showing his ideas of everyday objects being extended and rendered useless. Kiki of Montparnasse (Alice Prin) is shown driving a car in a scene through a town. Towards the middle of the film Jacques Rigaut appears dressed in female clothing and make-up. Later in the film a caption appears: "'La raison de cette extravagance'" (the reason for this extravagance). The film then cuts to a car arriving and a passenger leaving with briefcase entering a building, opening the case revealing men's shirt collars which he proceeds to tear in half. The collars are then used as a focus for the film, rotating through double exposures.
Notes
*The film features sculptures by Pablo Picasso, and some of Man Ray's mathematical objects both still and animated using a stop motion technique.
*Originally a silent film, recent copies have been dubbed using music taken from Man Ray's personal record collection of the time. The musical reconstruction was by Jacques Guillot.
*When the film was first exhibited, a man in the audience stood up to complain it was giving him a headache and hurting his eyes. Another man told him to shut up, and they both started to fight. The theatre turned into a frenzy, the fighting ended up out in the street, and the police were called in to stop the riot.
*'Emak bakia' can also mean "give peace" ("emak" is the imperative form of the verb "eman", which means "give") in Basque.
*In 2012, Spanish director Oskar Alegria directed a feature-length documentary film 'La Casa Emak Bakia' which details his search for the house where 'Emak Bakia' was filmed.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2454970 IMDB entry for 'La Casa Emak Bakia']
References
Sources
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070601170537/http://www.cinescene.com/flicks/flicks042001.html Chris Dashiell, 'Flicks' (March 2001)]
See also
*Cinma Pur
*Dadaist poets
*Surrealist cinema
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